Review on 🌬️ Enhanced Cooling Technology: Introducing the PHANTEKS PH TC14PE Heat Pipes Premium Patented Cooler by Sean Maile

I chose the Phanteks because of the smaller overall size than some of the competition and the robust 8mm heat pipes. I chose quality air cooling over water cooling primarily for reasons of simplicity and safety, but also because my case only has a 1,140mm top outlet and I didn't want to limit myself to 240 rad with front mounts. I also chose Phanteks over Noctua due to my old LGA1366 platform. I didn't want to wait for Noctua to send me a mounting kit. Definitely a huge upgrade over my Evo212. I've seen my Xeon X5650 load temperature drop 10C on my old 24/7 OC settings. This cooler allows me to run at 4.6GHz 5 degrees cooler than the 212 which allows me to run at 4.4GHz. Now I can do a suicide run at 4.85GHz, while before on the Evo212 4.4GHz was basically the limit of the chip and 4.6GHz was dangerous. Now I'm using a modified BIOS with unlimited TDP at 190MHz base clock and the CPU is always 22-23x multiplier, voltage 1.305-1.312 volts for 4.18-4.37GHz speed. I have historically only been comfortable with Base 178, an unmodified BIOS, for a typical load speed of 3.74GHz at 1.265 volts. My system is now faster, quieter and about 5 degrees cooler (average 46 degrees compared to 51). It was worth it. It took me a very long time to assemble this cooler. Apparently almost everyone does. It takes divine patience and a lot of luck to turn both screws. I also find the mounting pressure a bit low, but since I haven't used other 2-screw coolers like the Noctua I can't compare. Remember that this radiator was designed in 2011. The first fan gets in the way of tall RAM heatsinks, even with my plain RAM shields the fan is right above the first channel. While you can of course set the fan higher, in theory you want the first fan to be as low as possible so it can push more air through the exposed heat pipes coming off the base of the heatsink, the hottest part of the heat pipes. Big plus for me. : The radiator is so close to my rear exhaust (about 1cm clearance) that the 2nd fan outlet can rotate my rear exhaust fan. Wow! I put a Corsair 120mm HP on the rear exhaust and it basically acts as a third radiator fan. The only downside is that Phanteks fan mounts are actually designed for 120mm fans, their 140mm fans have a special screw arrangement. That means you can't replace other 140mm fans. But the stock fans are good enough as they are, quiet at normal speeds and as noisy as any other high-end fan I've bought at revs (yes, even the Noctuas because the air noise can't be drowned out) . . There is no real problem. Would I buy it again? Uh, maybe. I think I'd try Dark Rock or NH-D15 just to see if it's easier to install.